Faced with a blizzard of criticism from angry parents forced to trudge with their kids to school through a nor’easter that dumped up to three inches of snow an hour on the Big Apple, a seemingly out-of-touch Chancellor Carmen Fariña defended the call to keep classes open Thursday — blindly declaring it “a beautiful day out there” as wet flakes and freezing rain continued to pelt New Yorkers.

Fariña and her head-in-a-snowdrift boss, Mayor de Blasio, scrambled to explain why school buses were rolling and kids sliding through the blinding storm, with Hizzoner trying to pin the blame on the National Weather Service for not providing a more precise inch count the night before, and insinuating the agency had low-balled its forecast.

“It has totally stopped snowing. It’s absolutely a beautiful day out there right now,” Fariña said during a Thursday-morning news conference with de Blasio, a mere 45 minutes after Gov. Cuomo declared a state of emergency for the city and its suburbs.

“It’s getting warmer, which means that, theoretically, the snow will start melting,” Fariña said as the jaws of reporters in attendance and parents across the city collectively dropped.

De Blasio and Farina defended their call to keep schools open, made at 10:30 Wednesday night, as weather forecasts predicted a severe winter storm with six 6 to 10 inches of snow for the city.

“Unlike some cities, we don’t shut down in the face of adversity. I’m going to make decisions based on the information we have,” Hizzoner said, insisting, “We made the right decision.”

Fariña also announced that kids who did not show up would be officially marked as absent, saying, “At the course of a whole day, you can still get to school.”

Meanwhile, less than two hours after kids and parents made the treacherous trek to school, Fariña canceled all after-school activities because of the bad weather.

She also pulled the plug on a town-hall meeting that would have brought her to Brooklyn on Thursday night, citing “inclement weather.”

Other city officials didn’t buy the de Blasio-Fariña snow job.

Even City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, a close de Blasio ally, said schools should have been shuttered, noting, “Closing schools is a very difficult and serious decision to make, and I believe in this instance it was warranted.”

Another mayoral ally, teachers- union chief Michael Mulgrew, said staying open was a “mistake,” and Public Advocate Letitia James called for a re-evaluation of the school-closing process.

— School buses slid through slippery streets, sparking outrage from white-knuckled drivers and parents, who noted that de Blasio’s “stay off the roads” mandate to residents conflicted with the order for kids to get to school

— Kids and teachers who did make it to school said classrooms were practically empty, and they spent the day watching movies and doing busy work but no schoolwork.

— A high-school student got more than 30,000 “likes’’ with a Facebook page urging the mayor and chancellor to rethink sending kids to school in snowstorms.

In the end, only 44.65 percent of students came to class, compared with a 90 percent on an average school day, according to the city’s Department of Education.

More than 165 schools reported attendance rates of 25 percent or less. PS 35 on Staten Island, where most kids depend on buses or car rides, had a mere 11 percent of students show up.

At the press conference, de Blasio insisted he made the right call, and seemed to buck the science behind weather forecasting, saying, “There is the illusion you can have perfect information and perfect decisions.”

“We don’t second-guess the National Weather Service,” he declared, before proceeding to do just that. “The low end of their estimate suggested that by the time kids were walking in the door of schools, there might have been two or three inches of snow,” he said.

“That was not an overwhelming figure from our point of view. The high-end figure was more problematic — but not enough to close school.”

De Blasio said he needs a “guaranteed” foot of snow on the ground by dawn to shut things down. “If you guaranteed me a foot of snow between midnight and 6 a.m., I guarantee you schools would be closed,” he said.

Fariña admitted to reporters that “dangerous conditions” existed by 7 a.m., but that apparently didn’t change her mind.

Rate the mayor's response to the storm

Tried to post a comment on Huff Post....I guess you can't criticize the
Mayor or the School Chancellor; my comment was deleted 3 times before it
even got reviewed, so here it is: I agree with Al....the schools
should have been closed! All area surrounding schools were closed. This
storm was predicted accurately; the mayor needs to make the decision
early in the a.m. That was when the storm was at its peak. Attendance
today: 44%; that speaks volumes. And what about parents/caretakers who
were asked to pick up kids for some early dismissals?? How are they
supposed to cope with that type of scheduling?? Definitely a 1-term
mayor; and the school chancellor is an idiot saying it was a beautiful
day.....yeah....at 11 a.m.!

Farina was saying the SNOW was beautiful - which it IS. But too many nyers like to gripe instead of looking at the silver lining or being THANKFUL TO GOD. Snow is not a problem - worship God and it gets warm and HE turns it to rain. I learned that 20 years ago. OPEN THE CHURCHES 24 hours and we would be able to take care of this very easily! But the churches are FAKE. only open a few hours on sunday? Idiotic. People look at that and think "OH GOD IS ONLY AVAILABLE 2 hours on Sunday? WHAT KIND OF GOD IS THAT? THIS IS WHAT MAKES ATHEISTS!!! THis is why God wants churches open 24 hours so people realize that HE IS Available 24/7. The holy spirit has been on earth for 2000 years and talks to everyone in our thoughts. Our conscience is God. Our intuition is God.

NYC Mayor Bill de Brasio is stinker leadership!!! If Donald Trump will run candidate governor before if he will elects till he will sworn . he will be very very very nasty meeting him at conference room.

This was about money trumping the safety of our kids. Have we forgotten that the state pays the Board of Education a sum of money for each child who attends school each day? Shame on DeBlasio, the phony caring progressive.

WHAT a bunch of bumbling effers! The not ready for prime time d-blasio and his idiot farina! Keep schools open yet close after school!!! OMG!!! These A-whole have NO COMMON SENSE and can't seem to be able to get rid of GD snow on the streets!!! In midtown, I haven't seen a plow! They don't salt beforehand! Suck up the GD water on the corners! GET A STRAW IF YOU HAVE TOO! MORONS!

This guy is so similar to Dinkins that it's scary. The twelve years that Bloomberg was in office made our city stronger (ok I get bloomie wasn't perfect but he really loves this city). Now we get this man of the people (lies) who's an idiot. Pray for these four years to be over quickly. His god awful moaning about Bloomberg showed that this big bird is nothing but a whining blamer.

As a parent, this is ridiculous. I kept my child home, and that Farina puppet can go to h*ll for punishing the kids who stayed home. If not the kids, what about the teachers and the bus drivers who had to try and maneuver through the snow and ice? What the heck where you thinking?

As a non-New York (City)er I find all of this utterly hilarious. It's amateur hour just 25 miles from my home and I'm having a blast watching this freak show. Who knew that I could live so close to a blossoming third world country? Please re-elect this clown! I mean, you morons allowed him in once, why not twice? The rest of the country is LOVING this! You guys are too much!

End the Free HealthCare and Free School Lunches and Free Food, and often Non-Tax Paying Properties (Housing Projects) for most of DiBlasio's voter-base. Its about time they got off the backs of the rest of the state and city and pulled their fair-share. Its the huge NY State and NYC Income taxes, that are the real reason NY has lost most of its productive industry. Plus NYC's kids, score low on basic proficiency test scores anyway. All the extra-help and wasteful extra government spending achieves little. NEW HAMPSHIRE which has no State Income Tax and still has industry and research and development, has the 2nd highest scoring SAT kids in USA, despite spending half per child at schools, as does Liberal Wasteful High Tax New York.

From those photos there was almost no snow in NYC. Up to 3", article said horrors. It might actually cover your shoe in areas not plowed. Its nothing like what the NW Suburbs got, nor the Catskills got. What DiBlasio was really wrong to do, was releasing the Sharpton's-friend-Reverend from Jail (as reported in NY Daily News) without him serving even 1 night in jail, picked up due to 2 arrest-warrants, because this Afric. Amer. Reverend had helped get out the vote for DiBlasio's election. Hence DiBLASIO IS CORRUPT, he interfered with normal workings of the NYPD and Courts, to make a political supporter reverend "above the law in NYC". That's what normal citizens not on DiBlasio's Corruption Favored's list, should be really mad about. Article in yesterday's NY Post.

Tried to post a comment on Huff Post....I guess you can't criticize the
Mayor or the School Chancellor; my comment was deleted 3 times before it
even got reviewed, so here it is: I agree with Al....the schools
should have been closed! All area surrounding schools were closed. This
storm was predicted accurately; the mayor needs to make the decision
early in the a.m. That was when the storm was at its peak. Attendance
today: 44%; that speaks volumes. And what about parents/caretakers who
were asked to pick up kids for some early dismissals?? How are they
supposed to cope with that type of scheduling?? Definitely a 1-term
mayor; and the school chancellor is an idiot saying it was a beautiful
day.....yeah....at 11 a.m.!

The Mayor may have kept the schools open, but the individual parent need not open the door and let his child out to go to that school!!!! However, the moronic statement by the Chancellor Carmen Fariña is beyond explanation. Perhaps there are no windows where she is which would have enabled her to see what was going on outside. Or maybe she is another public official who has caught the "Liar's Disease" of the Ohbongo Administration, where you can say anything you want regardless of reality, as long as it supports your idiotic, liberal views.

Our commie mayor along with his puppet chancellor has spoken. Half of his constituents kids who can care less about going to school didn't even show up. This clown along with his commie city council wants to give kids off for the Muslim holidays along with the lunar new year. What's next Stalin's birthday along with Castro's. The UFT endorsed this clown reap your rewards ladies and gentleman. He does not care about the well being of teachers and staff.

This is what needs to be done. You need a parent group who is not bribed by business men who don't want mothers to miss work because of their kids. Listen to the radio and let that group call it. Screw it up and you elect a new group. Simple. New your voted for this idiot and the first thing he wants to do is get rid of the Hanson caps so his friend can get the property where the stables are.

What a bunch of morons! While both Di Blasio and Farina probably ride in a car with a personal driver, the common people have to make do. It was asinine to send children out on such a dangerous..snowy day. Both are out of touch with reality. Bloomberg had a similar school chief who didn't last very long. Di Blasio sure knows how to pick them.

@Thomas Stratford A mental case and a proud Communist. All this jerk talks about endlessly is "universal Pre-K"; the sooner to get little kids into government-run schools and begin the brain-washing process and create obedient little Stalinists.

@William Patrick This just goes to show what an annuity politics can be for those of lesser capabilities and intelligence. Maybe he'll be giving out DeBlasio phones before the next election? Clint Eastwood had a term for this mayor in Heart Break Ridge. We all know what that is. Hint: Clustf......

@Drew9944 Hey Drew.....In Manhattan, the snow melts from all the heat from the underground subways and steam pipes. In the outer boroughs, there was up to 12 " of snow. In Queens where I live, I could barely get my front door open to get out to shovel! NO snow plows had come to my neighborhood until after 1 pm. So, don't go by a photo you see on TV......you have to live here to know that this call by the Mayor was STUPID!

@Drew9944 You mean in Manhattan, you geographically challenged mouth-breather. And you can judge what the entire borough was like based on a few photos? So many people with your obviously low level of intelligence are the reason NYC has this clown as Mayor. Enjoy! Everybody else is rolling in the aisles.